Paul Steenhuisen: You have gone to great effort to find new types of sounds in your music. What was your intention?

Helmut Lachenmann: It is true that I am trying to search for new sounds, but this is not my aesthetic aim or credo as an artist. With conventional or unconventional sounds, the question is how to create a new, authentic musical situation. The problem is not to search for new sounds, but for a new way of listening, of perception. I do not know if there are still new sounds, but what we need is new contexts.

- From "Interview with Helmut Lachenmann - Toronto, 2003" in Contemporary Music Review